Helping colonies in hot weather

[BernardBlack]

Up to 40 degrees forecast for the next few days. For southern England anyway. Over here, not just as warm.

Is there anything we can do to help our colonies in the high temperatures?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

yes, leave them be and don't fiddle

 

[JamezF]

Up to 40 degrees forecast for the next few days. For southern England anyway. Over here, not just as warm.

Is there anything we can do to help our colonies in the high temperatures?

A couple of other threads have mentioned this over the last day or two.

First I'd say you need to decide whether they even need help. The temperature they try to maintain around the brood nest is still warmer than many people will experience over the next few days, so perhaps it will actually make life easier for them for a while.

Unless there are huge numbers of bees outside the hive and they're fanning like crazy around the entrance to try to keep the hive temperature down, I'd really not worry about it too much. Some of my colonies are in full sun all day and today I couldn't tell that they were doing anything different from normal.

James

 

[Antipodes]

A couple of other threads have mentioned this over the last day or two.

First I'd say you need to decide whether they even need help. The temperature they try to maintain around the brood nest is still warmer than many people will experience over the next few days, so perhaps it will actually make life easier for them for a while.

Unless there are huge numbers of bees outside the hive and they're fanning like crazy around the entrance to try to keep the hive temperature down, I'd really not worry about it too much. Some of my colonies are in full sun all day and today I couldn't tell that they were doing anything different from normal.

James

In Australia, from memory, folk seemed to report some trouble once temperatures get to around 46 degrees, where comb/honey can start to melt and ooze out of the hive. It probably depends somewhat on the size of the colony relative to the size of the hive. I've had bees go through 43 seemingly without trouble, but I guess a microclimate on a roof or somewhere where the temperature is higher than surrounding areas could be damaging.